Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

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Napoleon’s brilliant victories, lie suddenly enlisted as
quartermaster in a dragoon regiment. In a month’s time
he was made sub-lieutenant, and for about a year and a
half acted as aide-de-camp to General Michaud. But the
routine of garrison life, to which he was soon afterwards
condemned, made him heartily tired of a military career.
On the conclusion of the peace of Amiens (1802) he threw
up his commission, and went to reside with his family at
Grenoble. From them he obtained means to take up his
abode in Paris, where for some time he continued to devote
himself to study and literary work. In 1805 he suddenly
accepted a situation as clerk in a mercantile house at
Marseilles, and remained there nearly a year,—in fact, till
the actress, for whose sake he had taken this curious step,
married a wealthy Russian. In the following year he again
accompanied M. Daru into Germany, and was appointed to
superintend the possessions of the emperor in Brunswick.
Whatever German he learnt there was afterwards completely
forgotten. In his official capacity as connected with the
commissariat he took part in the ill-fated Russian campaign
of 1812, and remained loyal to the fallen emperor. He
declined to lay himself out for employment under the new
regime, and retired to Milan, where he resided till 1821.
His early works, chiefly on painting and music, date from
this period of his life. The Lettres ecrites de Vienne sur
Haydn, suivies d’une Vie de Mozart, &c., which appeared in
1814 under the pseudonym of Alexandre Cdsar Bombet,
were mainly plagiarized from Carpani. With some slight
alterations the work was reproduced in 1817 as Vies de
Haydn, Mozart, et Metastase. In the same year he
published, under various assumed names, Histoire de la
Peinture en Italie, which contains some good but
unsystematic criticism, and Rome, Naples, et Florence en
1817. In 1821 he was compelled to return to France, an
unfounded suspicion that he was a French spy having
somehow arisen at Milan. During the following nine years
he resided at Paris, and gradually began to acquire his high
reputation as an accomplished litterateur and man of the
world. He was an admirable talker and full of anecdote,
which in his opinion ought to form the staple of conversa¬
tion. His fine analytic powers were displayed to full
advantage in the curious work, De VAmour, which he
published in 1822, but the book did not find an appreciative
audience. The Vie de Rossini, which followed, was more
successful; and the pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare did
good service for the cause of Romanticism in its struggle
with the rigid classical canons of older French literature. In
1829 appeared his Promenades dans Rome, full of informa¬
tion, criticism, and original observation, but somewhat
chaotic in form. He was appointed consul at Trieste in
1830, and three years later he quitted that place with the
greatest joy for a similar post at Civita Yecchia. There
he remained till 1841, with frequent absences, one
extending from 1836 to 1839, during which he paid a
short visit to London. In 1841 his health gave way, and he
returned to Paris, where he died on the 22d March 1842.
Beyle, during his lifetime, was known to hut a very small circle
of readers ; within the last twenty years, however, his popularity
has greatly increased, and his many fine powers have received due
recognition. It is not probable that he will ever have a very ex¬
tended influence; his writings are “caviare to the general,” and can
only be appreciated by those qualified to take pleasure in the cynical
reflections of mere egotism. For Beyle’s philosophical creed, so far
as he can be said to have had one, was materialism, and his ideal
of humanity aesthetically refined selfishness. His strength lay in
keen criticism and in acute psychological analysis, qualities which
gave value to his writings on art, but debarred him from success in
the department of fiction. His principal novels, Le Rouge et le
Noir, and La Chartreuse de Parme, fell comparatively dead, though
the latter was received with extravagant eulogy by Balzac, and has
recently become more popular. His genius was too analytic to be
suited for romance writings ; the novels want consistency of plot
and motive power in the characters. La Chartreuse, however, the
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best of them, gives an admirable picture of the involved intrigues
of a small Italian court, a subject with which Beyle was specially
qualified to deal. The peculiar value of all his writings consists
in the amount of thinking which they excite, though it must be
confessed that the subjects are frequently unworthy of the attention
devoted to them. The fullest account of Beyle is that by A. A.
Baton, Henry Beyle, a Critical and Biographical Study, 1874. See
also Colomb’s prefaces to La Chartreuse and the Romans et Nou-
velles, Merimee’s preface to the Correspondance Inedite, and Sainte-
Beuve’s articles in the Causeries du Lundi.
BEYROUT, Beibout, or Bairut, tbe most important
seaport town of Syria, on the coast of the Mediterranean,
in the pashalic of Acre, 57 miles W.N.W. of Damascus.
It is situated on rising ground on the northern side of
the promontory of the Jebel-er-Rosheh, which forms the
spacious bay of St George’s, a short distance to the west
of the mouth of a stream to which it gives its name—Nahr-
Beirut, the ancient Magoras. The surrounding hills consist
of reddish sand, interspersed with rocks, and covered with a
light soil. The roadstead to the N.E. of the town is
sheltered from the S.W. wind, but is exposed to the W.
and the N.W. The ancient harbour is now choked up,
and all that remains of the artificial erections is a pier or
causeway at the N.W. extremity of the town, at which
boats can discharge. It is supported on arches of unequal
size, and is partly constructed of ancient marble columns,
many of which still stand along its front, and are used for
mooring the lesser vessels. In 1874 the authorities
determined to construct a small harbour, and £10,000 was
allotted for the purpose. The city proper is an irregular
square, open towards the sea, and surrounded on the land
sides by a substantial tower-flanked wall, built by Djezzar
Pasha. At the N.W. corner are two castellated buildings,
built on the rocks. The streets are wider than is usual in
Syrian towns, and are paved with large stones; the houses
are for the most part lofty and spacious. Formerly, there
were deep channels of water flowing down the middle of
the streets, but these have been removed. The suburbs
of the city, which extend around it with a radius of a mile
and a half, are beautifully situated, interspersed with
gardens, and planted with fruit trees. During the hot
season the wealthier inhabitants remove inland to the
villages of Beit-Miry, Brumanah, or Shemlin, on the lower
slopes of the Lebanon. Besides the mosques, bazaars,
and other native buildings with which it is provided, the
city of Beyrout possesses numerous European edifices and
institutions. There are six Roman Catholic convents or
monasteries, with churches and schools attached, and the
sisters of charity maintain an orphanage and hospital.
The Prussians support a well-organized school, under the
management of a Protestant sisterhood, and the American
missionaries have, among other establishments, a hospital
and medical school. A girl’s school was begun in 1860 by
Mrs Thompson, and a ragged school in 1863. A native
Christian community has been for some time in existence ;
and in 1847 a native society of arts and sciences was
established. Formerly regarded as the port of Damascus,
Beyrout has now become by far the more important of the
two cities. It is the seat of various consular establish¬
ments, and possesses a quarantine, a custom-house, and
post-offices. It exports silk, wool, bitumen, rags, sponges,
and skins, and imports European goods for a large part
of Syria. In 1871 the value of the exports, which were
destined chiefly for France and England, was £530,000;
while that of the imports, which were mainly from Eng¬
land and Germany, amounted to £1,240,000. The
coasting trade, carried on by small native craft, consists
principally of timber, firewood, charcoal, and straw. A
lighthouse, 98 feet high, was erected in 1864 on the
neighbouring cape of Ras Beyrout. A carriage road was
constructed by a French company about 1863, connect¬
ing Beyrout with Damascus. An English company com-